Unhinged before the Fall: Boris Johnson, Parliament and Brexit

Binoy Kampmark

The Brexit no deal prospect is engendering an element of lunacy fast seeping into every pore of the British political establishment. As with all steeped in such thinking, some of it made sense. Prime Minister Boris Johnson had been inspired by a mild dictatorial urge, seeking to suspend the UK parliament five weeks out from October 31.

This has been described as nothing short of a coup, or, if you are the speaker of the House of Commons, John Bercow, a

constitutional outrage”.

Legal expertise was called upon to answer the question whether Johnson’s proroguing of parliament was, in fact, constitutional. This was itself a tricky thing, given that the UK has a “political constitution” that resists being inked into written form.

To be British is supposedly to be reasonable, and codifying such convention suggests a fear that reason might be lost.

As Professor Michael Gordon of the University of Liverpool explains, three avenues are open to evaluate the constitutionality of a government action in the system:

compatibility with the law, political convention and constitutional principle.

On the first point, it was near impossible to challenge Johnson. For all the matters of convention, the monarch remains the figure who ultimately holds the power to prorogue parliament.

And the argument here by the prime minister is that this is the penultimate step to announcing a fresh legislative agenda in the monarch’s speech on October 14.

As far as the second point was concerned, Gordon had to concede that the Queen would never have constituted herself as a “constitutional safeguard” to reject Johnson’s request. That would have done more than repudiate the long held convention on staying above politics and acting on the advice of the prime minister.

This only left the nebulous notion of “constitutional principles”: as the government draws support from the House of Commons, it must duly abide by the body if its wishes are out of step.

As the House of Commons rejects the idea of a no deal Brexit, Johnson should have engaged parliament on the issue. Well, that’s the view of the pro-parliamentarians, and as the current prime minister has a very flexible set of values both personal and political, few should have been stunned by the latest antics in subverting parliamentary scrutiny.

Beyond the legal pecking, a swathe of reaction were in agreement with Bercow. Novelist Philip Pullman went one further.

The 'prime minister' has finally come out as a dictator. I've had enough of being outraged. We must get rid of him and his loathsome gang as soon and as finally as possible.

Britain best be “rid of him and his loathsome gang as soon and as finally as possible.”

This had a certain whiff of a coup of its own, the sort of thing that Westminster systems have been vulnerable to in history. (Australia offers an apt, if undistinguished example of the overthrow of Prime Minister Gough Whitlam in 1975, ably assisted by opposition leader Malcolm Fraser and then governor general John Kerr.)

The prorogation ploy was taken so seriously by the Financial Times that a humble suggestion was made lest Britain comprise his airy position as law-abiding obsessive and exemplar of order to the world.

If Mr. Johnson’s prorogation ploy succeeds, Britain will forfeit any right to lecture other countries on their democratic shortcomings.”

Momentum, the Labour faction supporting Jeremy Corbyn, the man who would be usurper, was laying the ground [the tweet has since been deleted – ed.] for a challenge, albeit tumbling into the oxymoronic.

An unelected prime minister looks set to approach an unelected monarch to ask her if he can shut down parliament to force through a disastrous no deal Brexit.”

The assessment?

Make no mistake – this is an establishment coup.

All fine, except that monarchs are known for being humanity’s unelected specimens, and that this coup was being countered with a proposal for a counter-coup. Messy be the conventions of the land.

For those long linked to Britain’s gradual and seemingly natural integration into European affairs, the move by Johnson was near criminal. Hugh Grant, summoning up a certain primal rage, was furious. On Twitter, he launched a ferocious firebombing of Johnson’s position.

You will not fuck with my children’s future. You will not destroy the freedoms my grandfather fought two world wars to defend. Fuck off you over-promoted rubber bath toy. Britain is revolted by you and you little gang of masturbatory prefects. https://t.co/Oc0xwLI6dI

Weep for Britain. A sick, cynical brutal and horribly dangerous coup d’état. Children playing with matches, but spitefully not accidentally: gleefully torching an ancient democracy and any tattered shreds of reputation or standing our poor country had left.

Unfortunately, such comments betray an old tendency in self-referential Britishness, a Britannia-rules-the-waves smugness. The world admires, the world respects. But that world died some time ago, if, indeed, it ever existed. Britain made a pact for security and wealth with a Europe often reluctant to accept its suspicions and reservations. Both are now parting ways.

Far milder assessments have also been offered to hose down the Grant ire. Johnson’s attempt to schedule a Queen’s speech for October 14 was seen in The Spectator, a magazine he once edited with carefree indifference, as “normal” and part of the operating processes of a new government. At the very least, it would also “bring to an end one of the longest parliamentary sessions in history”.

The Queen was hardly going to refuse, stratified by, well, convention. Had she done so, breaking the crust, and holding forth over the prime minister, there would been howls of a different sort. The only conclusion to arise from this latest bit of chess play by Johnson is that, come October 31, Parliament will have a minimal a role to scrutinise the agreement, or non-agreement, as it might well be.

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TFS

So, I was thinking of the Dodo lately, and in a similar vain…

Anyone seen the line by line breakdown and the legalese supporting the paying of the £39bn devorce bill, apart from the normal, ‘because we have to’?

I do like my Demoracy itemised and backed by legalese……..

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Sep 4, 2019 12:38 PM

Ken Kenn

As long as the Queen says everything alright – that’s fine by me.

After all, I’m a democrat to my boots.

Only in the UK could people push that line with a straight face.

What does God say?- he appointed her.

So it is written.

Or not written?

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Sep 2, 2019 2:01 PM

Tsar Nicholas

The British people voted to leave, and Parliament has blocked the process. Parliament was going to go into recess anyway between September 13th and October 8th. What a tosser you are!

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Sep 2, 2019 9:41 PM

different frank

Chris Rogers
Paid troll?
Discuss.

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Sep 1, 2019 11:57 PM

pablomillerunit

talks mince- check
always moaning – check
can’t address issues not on his crib sheet – check
Frank, I can’t think of any better explanation – so grudgingly , this round to you. The grudge bit is only because the image of Syria’s burned out cities is part of the backdrop to all the lives being lived in the uk at this time. However fleeting this image is, I reckon it causes a fair bit of mental illness across society. I must admit I had some sort of mini- breakdown when I first saw pictures of Aleppo bombed out. So maybe he is another victim of the western war against Syria and isn’t in his right mind.

To be honest, you ask persons to respond to your posts and then ‘slander’ claiming alternatives are not available to the questions you poise yourself – “THERE IS NO THIRD WAY” – and then continue to slag off and make crass accusations – plenty on these boards have crossed paths with me over many years, one reason I actually post under my actual identity is I have bugger all to hide or fear and persons can simply Google to see where I’m posting if I’m able to do so.

I’d loved to get paid, thus far funds from the St Petersburg Bot Factory have thus far not materialised, but we live in hope of a cheque clearing.

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Sep 2, 2019 1:56 PM

Mucho

Maybe we always hear about Russian bots to deflect attention from the fact that large amounts of British taxpayers money is being used to fund armies of keyboard warriors here in the UK, whose job is to spread the lies and disinformation being constantly spewed out by the criminal British establishment, and hijack threads not to their liking

All boils down to the manufacture of consent, Saturday’s protests were an example of that. That these protests can be turned on and off at will should cause alarm, as should the fact that many don’t even know they are being duped.

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Sep 3, 2019 10:05 PM

Molloy

….he’s very busy, is he not ? ! !

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Sep 3, 2019 12:13 PM

pablomillerunit

Molloy, my grandad used to say ” …an empy vessel makes the most noise …” I never really knew what he meant

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Sep 4, 2019 1:31 PM

Doctortrinate

I see the word “Unhinged” , then I see folk waving banners with the words “Defend Democracy” – So I think – but thats”Unhinged”….are they deluded ? – caught under that evil spell of “Democracy = Right”……when even waving a simple “This Is Wrong” message would’ve proclaimed their feelings amply enough….in fact , I’ve a few they could have had, though not my old favourite, used outside polling stations whenever there’s an election…. it’s well worn, but perfectly legible.

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Sep 1, 2019 9:36 PM

pablomillerunit

After several years struggling to understand the raft of issues associated with brexit, the last few days of discussion has allowed me to formulate it down to a ” two legs bad, four legs good” proposition.

Option 3 seems a non-starter – with our dark colonial history trading could be complicated. I trust America less than Europe, so I have just realised I am remainer. I never voted in the referendum and never had an opinion until now – could someone help me out and point out the flaws in my reasoning.

Let me put it this way, an actual third way option does exist, one that does not involve Brussels or Washington, in order for this to happen, we have to dispense with the shackles of neoliberalism, which, as a socioeconomic orthodoxy is plastered all over the Lisbon Treaty – of course, this means exiting the shackles of our Treaties with the EU, instructing the USA we ain’t its bitch no more, and offering the UK electorate an alternative to the present economic madness, which means becoming radical with policies that help 90% of our electorate, rather than 5-10% as is presently the case.

Of course, we can all continue on our merry way with the present status quo and sweet, meaningless platitudes espoused by Centrists as the ecosystem continues to be destroyed and multiple extinctions continue on land and in our oceans.

Financialisation of everything necessary for human existence does not offer a way forward, alas, this is the technocrats and neoliberals preferred route, as epitomised by Carbon Markets and Trading, all under the auspices of the EU I hasten to add.

The limits of growth have been know about for most of my lifetime and the carbon economy is in its end game, we’ve used most of our global oil reserves, with no real alternative that produces as much energy, and our economies are energy intensive – and that energy requirement is growing exponentially as our planet suffocates under the weight of our consumer excesses.

So, at least one major economy needs to put a breach in the dam and follow an alternative route that’s conducive to human existence in the long term – the EU don’t offer us that and will never offer it as the Brussels corporate lobbyists will never allow it.

Of course, if the EU and its Institutions were open to representative, democratic change, where both the legislative branch and executive branch were elected directly by the people, things would be different, but it ain’t.

Leaving the EU will have medium term economic consequences, the longterm economics are not dire, and all change comes with a cost, the cost of doing nothing though will be extreme, particularly for my daughter and all those born after the year 2000.

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Aug 31, 2019 9:27 PM

pablomillerunit

Chris I don’t have your grasp of economics but I read third world literature widely- beginning with Chinua Achebe ” The Trouble with Nigeria ” which I read over thirty years ago. Though the colonised peoples treat individual Britons decently enough I can’t see that happening with a free and sovereign Brittania ruled by the SAME CLIQUE that colonised and administered and exploited a third of the world.
You don’t explain how we free ourselves of America’s overwhelming influence. As for ” instructing the USA we ain’t its bitch no more ” you make that sound easy . Find me a politician with the spine or inclination to tell ” the USA we ain’t its bitch no more ” . Even if a large majority of Britons united and told the political establishment to tell America that “we ain’t its bitch no more ” you have only to look at the brexit debacle to see that it wouldn’t be easy. Don’t you read the papers? The only mass political movement with the potential to tell America “we ain’t its bitch no more ” – Jeremy Corbin’s Labour Party has been under a ” full spectrum dominance ” attack for a number of years. Chris I trust America less than Europe. I don’t believe you.
You babble about “The limits of growth” and such like, why? To bamboozle, obfuscate and confuse, coz that is all your doing. I’ll make it easy for you ; if you had to pick to your daughter’s future, one where she lived her life under American governance and the other were she lived her life under European governance what would you choose ? For me , it is a no brainer.
Chris, if you truly believe in an independent ” third way ” god help your daughter . We are not an empire any more and can’t bully our way to get what we want. THERE IS NO THIRD WAY.

As I’m no colonialist and don’t promote colonialism, or any other form of exploration, none too sure where you are actually coming from, except exhibiting a denialism at the carnage we are visiting upon the environment we live within and species we rely upon for our own survival.

We live on a finite planet, with a finite amount of natural resources, many of which have been exploited and are close to exhaustion, particularly those required to generate energy, given our entire modern civilisation relies upon huge amounts of energy, and that cheap supply is running out, how exactly do you propose society to continue?

We either change or die, I prefer orderly change, a change it seems many don’t want to make, in which case God help your own family.

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Aug 31, 2019 11:23 PM

pablomillerunit

Chris I’m an orphan, brought up and abused in a local catholic orphanage – I don’t have any family. If I did have a family, I , and I guess most of the people I know would not use them as cheap emotional props to bolster non-existent arguments in internet forums. I am only guessing, but people seem to treat their families with a reverence that precludes deliberately cheapening them – but what do I know.
Chris, GET WITH THE PROGRAM – everyone who is arsed already knows the world teeters on the brink, both environmentally and nuclear exchange wise, that is not the issue. Donald Trump doesn’t believe in climate change and he leads the biggest polluter / consumer nation, America. Leaving or staying in Europe has nothing to do with climate change.
How dare you accuse me of ” exhibiting a denialism at the carnage we are visiting upon the environment we live within and species we rely upon for our own survival ” . You don’t know me or how I chose to respond to this issue but see no problem rubbishing me. That my friend is a very bad sign. I avoid socialising with people who make such behaviour part of their social repertoire.
What about answering my points – is that to much to ask. Tell me of the third way, how we navigate between America and Europe. Chris, I sense you are labouring ( very heavily ) up hill, do yourself a favour, give it a rest.

You have denied their are viable alternatives, none of which involve Washington or Brussels, which are overflowing with paid corporate lobbyists – where I presently reside in the South China sea I’ve witnessed the extinction of pink dolphins, unimaginable amounts of debris washed upon our shores hourly, palm oil spills, heavy fuel spills and our local fisheries full of toxic marine life poisoned by human activities. much of which cannot be eaten – this is in but one small spot that’s in a very busy shipping lane.

On my journeys across Asia I’ve been in Singapore and Malaysia at the height of the forest burning season where you can hardly see more than 10 metres, been in Beijing where visibility has been virtually zero due to massive air pollution and witnessed dire poverty I never imagined, so, somewhere, one of the advanced industrial nations need to make a break with this crap and change trajectory rapidly and hope, other more enlightened nations will follow the lead.

That sir you seem to believe is not possible and that we should retain the status quo, or at least live within its straightjacket – you state clearly their is no Third Way, well, there is, and many indigenous peoples used to live lives in harmony with our ecosystems, oil and massive energy requirements/consumption changed this balance, and that cheap energy that issued forth great wealth, much of which none of us oils has ever seen, is running out with no viable alternative.

Tell me, will Brussel’s lead the charge, or, in a more decent world the UK can put its full weight behind the United Nations and lead the charge with other nation states threatened by ecological disaster.

Business as usual is over, and until we all as individuals wake up to this fact we are buggered, and for this reason alone I’ve only ever had one child late in life and I’d like her and her offspring to have a viable future, which won’t be one of luxury and excess.

Excuse me, but are these not your words as typed by you whilst making a critique of my own opinions:
“THERE IS NO THIRD WAY.”

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Sep 1, 2019 3:55 PM

Paolo

The interesting detail being that it was the UK that introduced neoliberalism to europe just as it introduced the migration crisis by starting the grotesque wave of regime change misadventures in the ME with Bush back in 2003 (thanks Tony).
Which poses the question…..is the UKs role as EU trojan horse one borne of design or of political ineptitude and arrogance?
Iraq, neoliberalism, Russophobia, PC culture, Saudis, Skripal etc etc…. its a long list !

Paulo,
At first glance, and because of the SEA (Single European Act), which Thatcher initially pushed, a case can be made that it was the UK that infected the EEC with neoliberalism, however, a closer examination of economic history, specifically with regards Jacques Delor’s tenure as French Finance Minister, efforts through-out the 1970s to establish an exchange rate mechanism, and the very fact that major central banks and associated supranational bodies (IMF) were already pushing monetary and fiscal policies closely correlated with neoliberalism, the simple fact is they were already infected – Bill Mitchell’s Blog covers most of this actual period.

As far as the USA using the UK as a useful bridge or conduit in to influencing EEC policy, this would be a correct assessment, given, until DeGaulle’s death, France did not with wish to act as an adjutant to US foreign policy, that obstacle once removed allowed the UK to actually join the EEC, which of course was heavily influenced by US soft power – US State Department papers and UK FCO Papers can be used to verify this during the 1969-1972 timeline and beyond – please remember, during this period France was building up its own independent nuclear weapons capability, whilst the UK was leasing its nuclear arsenal from the USA by way of Polaris.

Its also worth mentioning Five Eyes here, which is a spying/information gathering network set up between the USA, Canada, Britain, Australia and New Zealand – perfidious Albion as ever shall we say.

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Sep 1, 2019 10:19 PM

Dungroanin

It is 5+1 eyes.

And we were trying to barge into the EC for at least a decade to piss in their tent from the inside.

We are being frogmarched out to keep pissing on it from outside.

It is all about the same age old class war.

It seems that skirmishes are actually being fought by the upper class even here at O-G – they must be worried.

You are correct, further, a new post is available on The Lobster Magazine that reinforces the view that the UK was used as a bridgehead by the USA to influence Brussels, however, lets not get too carried away given most EU members states are already members of NATO and NATO is run for the benefit of the USA, which it was not originally set-up for but has certainly morphed into since the 60s.

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Sep 2, 2019 3:14 PM

Dungroanin

Yes ChrisR , there are typewritten memos going back to the 50’s which are explicit about why we went in. Infact ALL the arguments were thoroughly rehearsed at the time when the options were considered for the various Channel Islands.

Seeing as you like the Lobster (haven’t seen it for a while) here is some more on what was happening before the last referendum and why people voted the way they did.

We are reaching the denouement and the hard brexiteers are throwing themselves at the line.

The first article is about how the real Labour socialist party was hollowed out and the panic of the neolibs at the Corbynite win; the second about how the populace was softened up by a decade of austerity. Which was the happy hunting ground the pounshop Enoch and his msm enablers furrowed. Never mind the social media machinations of ‘Dr Strangelove’ Cummings – which I am happy that people have finally caught up with.

As for the gangster insurance salesman (2% gdp fire insurance) of nato and the Atlantic Council stooges – they and their bases are not needed or wanted in the EU- there is no Soviet Union threat of tanks rolling in or whatever from the ex states. They should pack up and go.

I’m lucky enough to having associated with Harold Wilson’s chief negotiator with the EEC, so have heard some firsthand account tales, indeed, he’s of the opinion EFTA was always the chart we should have plotted. Mind you, much of the actual government documentation was hidden behind the 30, 40 and 50 year rules of releasing state papers, but you can glean a great deal from US State Department documentation that’s released far earlier – christ, plans for Europe in the UK began in earnest in 1943 and British leadership was only lost when we naffed off the French with sterling devaluation, the Schuman Plan was a direct response to this, despite no ill will intended by the then Chancellor – ain’t history funny!

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Sep 2, 2019 6:17 PM

Dungroanin

It is hillarious, check this doozy from 1959 – yes 59:

Joint paper by the FCO and Treasury for the Working group for the Future Policy study, ‘Developments in Western Europe’, 12 August 1959

“If the EEC developed effectively as one unit, it could readily by the early 1970s be an economic (and political) unit of the same general order of magnitude in population and gross national products as the United States in the mid 1950s… Such a consolidation of West European resources would represent a major change in terms of world power. If these people wished to do so, and devoted themselves vigorously to it, they could by 1970 be carrying out a defence effort and a foreign aid effort not greatly less than that now being exerted by the United States. The effects of this on the structure of NATO and the position of the United Kingdom could well be serious. The Six, as a more or less cohesive political unit, would radically shift the balance of power within the alliance and the United Kingdom might be left in the cold in a United States/Six partnership….If we cannot come to terms with a successful EEC, the likelihood of its developing along anti-British lines will be much increased. In the event the EEC would come to exercise a considerable attraction for some non-committed countries in OEEC [sic]… In such a situation, the Americans might well throw the weight of their support behind the new grouping, with great detriment not only to our general position but also to Anglo/American relations. It thus seems reasonable to suppose that if the EEC is successful, the Six will by 1970 be developing into a very powerful economic and political unit, completely overshadowing the United Kingdom, capable (if France wishes) of exerting effective independent military and diplomatic power and probably changing the character of NATO”. Considers three futures: growth of de facto Western European federation; comparative failure of the EEC; complete failure. “It is impossible to say which of these three main possibilities is the most likely… Biggest question mark hangs over the policy of France”.

The sad thing is, De Gaulle’s vision for the EEC was never fulfilled, it never became an effective third force between Anglo-Capitalism and Soviet Communism, although the existence of NATO certainly did not help – this lot completely missed the ball on China though – imagine how UK officialdom is now acting about the prospect of China over taking the USA?

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Sep 2, 2019 8:19 PM

Tsar Nicholas

The British victims of neoliberalism were the ones who swung the democratic vote to Leave.

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Sep 2, 2019 9:43 PM

Kathy

When both sides of this increasingly divisive Brexit can see the other as the antidemocratic one. The spell is pretty much accomplished. The supa rich feed, thrive and trade on the chaos.

Provided you can spare two hours of your time, I recommend to watch the documentary The Great Hack. It is listed as ‘new’ (2019) on the website ‘thoughtmaybe’. Although it does not contain the final results of the Bobby Müller investigation. (I just had to do that, sorry)

What it shows is, how people are manipulated into acting against their own well being for the lowest reasons the human condition provides for. The election of the Orangeman, Brexit and various other aspects of Cambridge Analytica’s involvement in fabricating consent are plainly shown.

What is going on in the UK right at this moment of typing, is the result of the deepest of manipulations of the UK collective mind. The fallout of inciting division by clown like people that are not at all funny, is far greater than the mind can grasp. Yesterday, I posted a recommendation on Bella Caledonia about the probably best solution for Scotland to join Ireland and Wales to create their own union. Reading the news today at presstv, was sobering. The Irish Unity March in Govan, Glasgow turned into violence. There are obviously folks in Scotland that are not on good terms with folks from Ireland. At least that is the impression one gets. But again, after having watched The Great Hack, everything looks manipulated now.

Allow me to emphasize one important point. While ‘Cambridge Analytica’ no longer exists, ‘Google Analytics’ does. When you go to any website, your browser will show you at the bottom the loading elements. ‘Google Analytics’ will always appear. Google Analytics has taken over the business of Cambridge Analytica and I can only hope that people know what that means. It will pay off to make a Nasdaq search about who owns ‘Google’. One will find an ‘ABC Corporation’. Does anybody have doubts why it is called that way? Keep searching for the majority institutional share holders. You will find a rabbit hole of epic proportions.

We are so much farther into big brother and the brave new world than even the most pessimistic folks could imagine. Do you still do Fakebook? Do you think Brexit people do Fakebook? Do you think ‘Remain’ people do Fakebook?

Someone posted on earlier threats that “We are effed.” I say – It is much worse than that. Everything is manipulated. This is not only an all encompassing crime against humanity – it will affect human evolution in the most adverse fashion. My apologies to be so realistic. I envy those who are older than me – those who are already 100 years old.

I must say the evidence of manipulation, and that’s just today, is crass indeed, in the UK we now have crowds demonstrating against a ‘Coup’ despite no coup occurring and no breach of Parliamentary precedent occurring – both Clement Attlee and John Major proroguing Parliament during their Premierships and our unwritten Constitution is based on precedent.

Here in Hong Kong, we have vandals allegedly protesting in support of democracy causing yet more damage to Hong Kong infrastructure, whilst branding flags of the USA and the old UK HK Colonial flag – we are led to believe all this is spontaneous and not orchestrated by dark powers – having lived in Hong Kong under British rule and Chinese Administration, I can attest to the fact that the Basic Law has been honoured, that we have freedom of speech and Rule of Law under English Civil Law, we also have a Free Press, although print media has engaged in self censorship – in reality, the people of Hong Kong enjoy more freedom than those in Singapore, although socioeconomic issues are visible here, inequality and a lack of affordable housing being chronic.

And, whilst all this deception goes on the Global Elite carry on destroying the eco system of our planet, whilst establishing bug out fortresses in New Zealand.

Absolute madness.

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Aug 31, 2019 5:08 PM

nottheonly1

…a lack of affordable housing being chronic.

Maybe, if the U.S. regime would feel the same urge to overthrow the German regime as it wants to bring down the Chinese government, the presstitutes would report about the millions of people in the streets of Germany – for affordable housing.

Social housing has been steadily reduced over the last two decades. The housing needed for low income earners is utterly insufficient. Prices for housing in major cities have doubled over the last ten years. Wages have not.

The German regime is of course in bed with the owner class and they give a flying hoot about the increasing numbers of homeless people – especially seniors that have worked their entire life – are now on the streets and scimming trash cans for food. No, nobody writes about that.

On top of it, the German regime will implement a CO2 ‘tax’ beginning 2020, and this tax will make housing even more costly. All this only works, because the Germans need a railroad ticket to go to the revolution. Or to a similar extend. One of the best publications at the moment is ‘Rubikon – The Magazin For The Critical Mass’. Albeit is in German, but that should not be a real obstacle nowadays. (Now I keep my fingers crossed that I got the formatting right this time…)

I can assure you I’m no Merkel fan, and to all extents and purposes Germany’s Green Party has been captured by the same neoliberal forces that have captured most social democratic parties across Europe, the SDP being captured not long after the UK’s Labour Party.

One of my German friends always instructs that Germany’s MSM has a tendency to sweep many issues under the carpet – he’s had many an article spiked in major German newspapers, suffice to say, he and his wife now vote Die Linke.

As regards the de-carbonisation of the German Economy, well, that’s a bit of a joke, if only because some German manufacturing has been moved across borders to former Eastern European economies. And yes, its the poor that usually suffer, and poverty and the fear of poverty are on the rise in Germany, much as it is elsewhere across Europe – suffice to say, the wake up call will come soon enough, regardless of what crap our Elites wish to feed us – can’t buck the limits of growth I’m afraid or change the fundamentals of thermodynamics.

Thanks for the link, will run it through Google Translate.

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Aug 31, 2019 7:30 PM

Robbobbobin

“Allow me to emphasize one important point. While ‘Cambridge Analytica’ no longer exists, ‘Google Analytics’ does. When you go to any website, your browser will show you at the bottom the loading elements. ‘Google Analytics’ will always appear. Google Analytics has taken over the business of Cambridge Analytica and I can only hope that people know what that means.”

It means that you are barking. Up a tree that isn’t there.

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Sep 1, 2019 11:17 AM

UreKismet

While acknowledging the role which US intelligence played in creating the circumstances necessary for the corrupt sections of the Oz media to hammer out 57 point headlines about “the Oz dollar crisis” when the Whitlam government sorted the issue when fixing the unconstitutional and therefore almost certainly short lived, fiscal problems,through organising a delivery of vast proportions – “unwhite gold” shock horror – a stroke which took the antediluvian arseholes fronting for ever grasping english & american banks 100% unawares.

So enter Betty the slapper – she used an -until that day, forgotten ploy of pulling out the old ‘head of state trumps all’ spiel, then insisted on the dismissal of Gough’s guvmint.

I’m not saying that to provoke some sort of discussion about who did what to whom back in 1975 – I know already and there are no words could change that – my point is that as you’ll have already observed the monarchy in action when she ticked the prorogue bizzo, expect no sudden changes of heart much less about turns from her indoors.
This is a human more than happy to ensure her own needs are met no matter how many naifs are squished in the process.

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Aug 31, 2019 10:24 AM

Wilmers31

Boris Johnson
✔
@BorisJohnson
To invest in our NHS, deal with violent crime and cut the cost of living we need a Queen’s Speech.

Maybe you do – but for investment in the NHS, deal with violent crime, and cut the cost of living you need money. MONEY<MONEY< MONEY does not come from the Queen making a speech but from reducing military expenditure.

No more soldiers to the ME. Sell the aircraft carrier. Do not buy F-35s. This is not rocket science and nets you billions, BILLIONS. Do not let them use and short change you – don't enlist.

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Aug 31, 2019 4:46 AM

different frank

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Aug 31, 2019 1:22 AM

ZigZag Wanderer

Lets not forget what the old fart General said about Corbyn in no. 10 ?

If I knew politics was this good I wouldn’t have majored in shelf stacking at Uni.

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Aug 31, 2019 12:27 AM

different frank

Remember what Bolton said about Corbyn being elected.

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Aug 31, 2019 1:14 AM

John A

Pompeo you mean.

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Aug 31, 2019 9:21 AM

JudyJ

Indeed. And interestingly that happened not too long after he (Pompeo) had met with Sir Mark Sedwill (head of the Civil Service) in March 2019. Sir Mark Sedwill has a VERY interesting career as can be seen from his Wikipedia entry. He was also present at the infamous Gavin Williamson Huawei Cabinet meeting.

When Sedwill was appointed as head of the Civil Service, controversially retaining the simultaneous role as National Security Adviser, this was all without competition and with the blessing of Theresa May who said he was the only person for the head of the CS job. He was quoted earlier this year in an interview for Civil Service Quarterly as (cryptically) saying that by holding both posts he would be ensuring “a genuine sense of teamwork across and beyond [my emphasis] government”. I wonder how far reaching the ‘beyond government’ remit goes.

Everyone may also recall that “two senior civil servants” had been quoted in the Times newspaper as saying that Jeremy Corbyn might have to stand down because of ill health. When the Labour party demanded an investigation Downing St responded that Sir Mark Sedwill would write to Corbyn about the matter…to date I have seen no further mention of an investigation.

It seems to me that multiple controversial issues have occurred during and since Sedwill’s tenure in the diplomatic service, during which time he had direct links to NATO. Of course this is probably just coincidental.

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Aug 31, 2019 11:14 AM

JudyJ

Sorry, in para 2 of my comments above, “beyond” should have been highlighted for emphasis.

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Aug 31, 2019 11:17 AM

BigB

Judy J:

Sedwill is also BoBo’s Cabinet Secretary – so he holds three major offices of state …which gives him unprecedented access and power. Many, including myself, think of him as the unnoficial head of state. BoBo is his cabinet secretary: not the other way around.

I can also identify many of ‘BoBo’s’ policies as being Lord Jim O’Neil’s policies (former Goldman Sachs; coined the BRICS acronym; former Cameron Minister (resigned under May); current chair of Chatham House). I’m not claiming they are the only members of the ‘Old Boy’ network …but they seem to have undue influence. BoBo is merely their spokesperson. His agenda is set for him: following WEF neoliberal policy.

Which is why I claim we are living under a totally unaccountable neoliberal government of occupation. For reasons stated elsewhere and below – the mere change in occupancy of No10 has little impact on this. Based on over 40 years of observation of election cycles.

Even proto-establishment – and Grauniad – journalist Melanie Phillip’s picked up on Sedwill’s treasonous control of the ‘May Cell’. Now we have a ‘BoBo-bot’ in ‘control’. For the real establishment agenda: Professor Gwythian Prin’s ‘Brexit Briefings’ are essential reading. Particularly concerning the so-called ‘KitKat Tapes’. We get the sugar coated synthetic chocolate outer – the real agenda is ‘more Europe’ and EU military unification. Interestingly, Prins briefed none other than Gavin Williamson days before his orchestrated demise. Common sense makes the orchestrator quite obviously to be ‘King Sedwill’.

“You can checkout any time you like, but you can never leave”. Not all the time Sedwill is running the country for the cronies of the City.

[Yes I know who Gina Miller is. Does anyone think that the City has one goupthink strategy? Does any group? The strategy is Camoron’s and O’Neils “Best of Both Worlds”. We’re in; at Foreign and Defence policy level. Our military is the core of the EU’s defence Union. The City is exempt any EU scrutiny or control. Why else were Ben Wallace and Dominic Raab at their respective EU ‘informal gatherings’ (Gymlichs) this week. Because we are leaving? The whole country has been played for fools. All those people on the streets yesterday did not know what they were there for. Democracy? Constitution? These things are chimera under the likes of Sedwill and his BoBo-bot. We are going to have to work a bit harder and be a bit more savvy if we want our country back].

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Sep 1, 2019 10:46 AM

pablomillerunit

” HE’LL HAVE TO RUN THE GAUNTLET”.

The film “Full Metal Jacket” by Stanley Kubrick depicts a powerful example of running the gauntlet

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Sep 1, 2019 9:53 AM

different frank

Sorry

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Sep 1, 2019 11:55 PM

pablomillerunit

ZigZag Wanderer you should be proud of your country and its coups. Don’t forget these coups, which seem quaint and pathetic at the same time, once terrorised the entire globe. They put the “Great” into “Great Britten” and built the mightiest empire ever known ( ermm! until America’s ) If you give it a year or two, we might, politically grow up and become a proper country. You know, like Guatemala or El Salvador where, apparently, America can have four coups a year and still have room for dinner.

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Sep 1, 2019 9:49 AM

mark

Poor old Hugh Grant.
Maybe he needs another session with Divine Brown to console him.

SCL – a Very British Coup.
Liam O Hare on the deep connections between Cambridge Analytica’s parent company Strategic Communication Laboratories (SCL Group) and the Conservative Party and military establishment, ‘Board members include an array of Lords, Tory donors, ex-British army officers and defense contractors. This is scandal that cuts to the heart of the British establishment.’https://bellacaledonia.org.uk/2018/03/20/scl-a-very-british-coup/
So brexit is not an establishment idea eh?
Read “Pinochet in Piccadilly”
This is their coup.

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Aug 30, 2019 11:41 PM

andic

I looked at the bad boys website, it’s a bit simplistic. I was disappointed but not surprised to see the obligatory Russian smears. I then looked at Cato’s site and understood, probably everything she endorses is shallow and ill thought out.

I can’t access the second without a vpn, I’m giddy with excitement about it though.

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Aug 31, 2019 3:55 AM

Tsar Nicholas

Nevertheless, it was the British working class who decided to Leave, and they are not stupid (like you champagne socialists tend to believe).

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Sep 2, 2019 9:46 PM

bevin

Chris has been posting the same stuff-in a tribute to the late Gwyn A Williams- as I have for years.
Believe me if he were a troll he’d be in Hong Kong now where the Empire needs all the help it can buy.

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Aug 30, 2019 11:12 PM

different frank

I remember when you dissed my telling of my Asian neighbours having their home petrol bombed front and back.
No real nazis?

bevin,
I’m still in HK, and have recently been on MOATS discussing the ‘Riots’, which I’m unimpressed by, to put it bluntly, if folks can’t accept Chinese sovereignty and brandish US and Imperialist UK Flags at Demo’s they lose my support – have not checked out the Foreign Correspondent’s Club for quite a while, but can attest to the fact we had a few spooks around in 1996 – mind you, if I’m a spook, I’m a most poor one, pay not being what it used to be in service of the Queen.

You are indeed a Troll of the worst order, on par with the Habbakuk Troll that used to post on Craig Murray’s Blog – first and foremost I spend 52 days a year with my family in Wales, I’m forced to do this because Ms May changed the criteria associated with the issuance of Spousal Settlement Visa’s for me and my British/Welsh Daughter to reside in my home town, where she was due to be educated in Welsh, the native tongue of my Country.

By denying my Wife an ability to live with me in my own country I’m stuck in Hong Kong – this matter will only change if we get a Corbyn Government – maybe I should abandon my wife and daughter to satisfy your racism and lies.

Now, please don’t interact with me again as you are certainly not worth associating with in any means or form.

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Sep 2, 2019 4:02 PM

Ruth

I think the purpose of this ‘coup’ is to add further to the frenzy of the Brexiteers to make sure in the snap election they vote Tory. Once the number of Conservative MPs is upped, Johnson can go for No Deal but he can also go for May’s deal

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Aug 30, 2019 10:49 PM

K Ford

BORIS JOHNSON – A man who betrays his family, will betray his country.

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Aug 30, 2019 10:20 PM

Frank Speaker

I’ve been here for 3 years. One day “Chris Rogers” parachutes in and blasts this site with comments.
Is he his own independent self?
Is he a CIA troll?
Is he a GCHQ troll?
Is he a Russian troll?
Is he an Israeli troll?
Who knows?

I’m a Putin Bot Frank – trust that helps you with your enquiries, although, I’m confident you’ll find me posting on other Left-of-Centre Blogs, together with Twitter, and once, before its was taken over completely by Centrist. I regularly posted BTL on The Guardian, hence my knowledge of this site, which I usually visit, if only to catch some wise words from Bevin.

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Aug 30, 2019 9:18 PM

Seamus Padraig

Chris recognized my handle from Naked Capitalism, so I can vouch. At any rate, if he’s a troll, then he must be a damn good one!

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Aug 31, 2019 12:45 PM

pablomillerunit

Seamus , do you not think trolls must evolve – just like all the other organisms on this planet?

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Sep 1, 2019 10:53 AM

Frank Speaker

I’m a Putin Bot Frank

So that’s a “Russian troll”.
I don’t actually think you are, but hey, disinfo agents are pretty sneaky these days ;o)

Usually I get accused of being an Assad Apologist, or a Bot from the St Petersburg Bot factory – never been accused of being an American Bot, or UK Security Agencies Bot, still, if the pays good I’ll investigate.

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Aug 31, 2019 7:33 PM

Admin

Admin

Frank – there’s zero reason to believe CR is anything but an interested reader and commenter. His comments have been to the point, informed and polite.

We urge people not to speculate about the motives of other commenters, unless the circs are incredibly suggestive of bad intent, and even then ignoring the perps is a better idea.

Thanks Admin, as it happens I was going to hog Craig Murray’s latest blog and offer a mild rebuke for his use of the word ‘Coup’, by chance, you had a post that was of interest to me with a similar critique, so I’ve added my bobs worth here, however, and being a regular poster on other Leftwing Blogs, if I ain’t welcome I won’t post anymore, given Bevin usually covers points I agree with – still if this is how regular treat posters wish I’d not bothered as I’m confident Frank can amuse all.

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Aug 30, 2019 9:37 PM

MLS

People are by and large decent and friendly here. Moderation is much more open than CM’s blog. Usually more variety of opinions and less like a little circle jerk (though we have a couple or three of mutual strokers ).

Twitter is actually the worst, particularly if you articulate any critique of Israel – the usual suspects are all over you – after three Bans in six months I was forced not to post under my actual identity, which I dislike greatly as fervently believe in Freedom of Speech – David Collier having a strong dislike of me – maybe Frank can hop over to Collier’s site, I’m sure my posts will amuse him.

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Aug 30, 2019 10:01 PM

Frank Speaker

I’d suggest that you might possibly wish to reserve your judgement until you fully understand how Reverse Psychology works.

Regretfully Frank I’ve not studied a great deal of psychology, apart from that utilised by Wilson to crush the US Left as it prepared to enter WWI, US exceptionalism being the best known fallacy of that devious operation.

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Aug 31, 2019 7:36 PM

pablomillerunit

Who ever he is, he told lies about me on this thread, that is incredibly suggestive of bad intent. It is in black and white at the top of the thread. I havn’t done nuthing to nobody.

Frank, if you’ve only been posting/reading here for three years, I can better that, for if you supplied links to Off Guardian on the BTL threads of The Guardian your posts were deleted and accounts placed in Moderation, I usually post links for this site on other Leftist sites, despite not posting much, but, strange is it not I know quite a few posters who I’ve interacted with over the years. Alas, I’m a spook, which is better than being accused of being an ultra Leftist by Centrists within the Labour Party.

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Aug 30, 2019 10:38 PM

Frank Speaker

OK, I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt for a bit longer ;o)

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Aug 31, 2019 5:10 PM

vexarb

Report from Jon Hellevig in the Saker on impendng decline of the Euro-Dollar:

“Finally, there is an important consideration that few if anyone seem to understand. That is the fact that the US and EU countries have been able to print the stupendous amounts of money while keeping rates down and without the currency values crashing only because they enjoy local currency monopolies in their respective territories. The USD has of course been enjoying a global monopoly, but that is fast fading. All the other factors mentioned above (and several other ones), have enabled to prop up and prolong these currency monopolies, but there is a limit to everything. In the coming recession, I would expect some of the lesser currencies to lose their monopoly trust and that would shatter the position of the bigger currencies USD and Euro and force them to raise interest rates. I have earlier written more in detail about this in a report titled How the Dollar and Euro Monopolies Destroyed the Real Market Economy. https://www.awaragroup.com/blog/dollar-euro-monopolies-destroyed-market-economy/

The below chart suggests that the Western countries are already on the way to lose their respective currency monopolies. The BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) now have a combined GDP (measured in PPP, which is the only correct way to measure the relative size of national economies) larger than not only the G7 countries, but the US and Eurozone economies combined.”

[If Hellevig is right then perhaps Britain ought to join the BRICS after Brexit?]

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Aug 30, 2019 7:01 PM

lundiel

They certainly shouldn’t envisage joining the Euro, a European army and becoming a federated state.

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Aug 30, 2019 7:40 PM

BigB

Vex:

Mark Carnage is making his bid to replace Lagarde at the IMF with something he is calling a ‘Synthetic Hegemonic Currency’ (SHC). Which will be a cryptocurrency creation of the G9 central banks (there’s no such thing: but G7+2 – Russia and China). Which, as I said recently, will be worse than the dollar reserve.

The CB’s will control the price of money globally, from a centralised vantage point. Not only will all the same players have access to the levers of control – exactly as they do with the dollar, only worse. Soros has Lagarde on speed-dial. Not only do they control the money cost of money: they control policy too.

Which is why Argentina is a canary in the coalmine. Countries grow by attracting foreign direct investment (FDI). Which is fine: but investors want a high rate of return …which can easily be acheived by investing in underdeveloped countries. Beyond a point, returns stall and money is withdrawn leaving an expensive infrastructure bill. If the people get tired of the austerity – whilst all the creditors are being paid by transferring the peoples wealth into private hands – they can always elect a new government?

No, because the creditor/investors withdraw their capital and the currency crashes. The IMF step in and pay the creditors: and hand the bill to the people. They restructure the country to make it easier for the global vultures to strip the remaining assets: and install regimes of austerity and penury on the people …the neoliberal Structural Adjustment Policy.

Which is what happened in Argentina. The IMF guaranteed to bailout investors with $56bn (the largest ever) – without a single peso going to the public. So they voted for Fernandez in the primaries: and the remaining capital disappeared overnight – crashing the Peso and leaving the country in default. Now the IMF are picking over the bones of a should be rich country – deciding what to take as collateral. The investors will get paid. The people will get the bill.

These are the sort of people behind BoBo. So they are handing out money like candy to prevent us turning on them. There is no use pretending the a change of regime in No10 will change anything. The levers of power are not in Downing Street. They are down the road in the City. If Carnage succeeds in his bid: the CBs will circle wagons around the billionaire residents of the Trans-National State, and their TNCs – and control global policy by manipulating the money price of money and policy. Brexit is a sideshow. (As I surmised: the resulting FTAs will integrate the ‘free trade flat earth’ even more).

The real issues concern every citizen focusing on what is real for them. Family, friends future, music, art, dogs …none of it is safe under these fockers. The centralised capitalist hegemonic regime they are imposing on humanity is totally at odds with the underlying reality. It will collapse at some stage: taking everything with it. And when it collapses: they will move in and buy entire countries for cents on the dollar. As reward for destroying humanity. Then they will rent it back to us; refloat the boat with the SHC and rent the future to us on a consent-only basis. Carnage, Mnuchin, O’Neil – to name but three – Goldman Sachs rules the world. For now.

Addressing that – and the environmental concerns, such as how are we going to keep the lights on and feed ourselves (we are a bad Winter away from grid failure: we already had a partial failure this Summer) – would be a much better subject of focus for my fellow countrymen (present company excepted). The proroguing pseudo-event was yesterday’s news. Todays will be Greta in NY at the UN Climate Summit. Not many people can see that they are inextricably linked. Linked by finance and entropy. Knowledge of ecology, psychology, and biology will determine the future. The economy and ecology are two Shire horses pulling humanity apart. I know which one is more powerful: and it does not favour Goldman $achs. We are all ‘ecosophers’ and ecologists now: if we want our future back.

What you describe, although focusing on Argentina is exactly what happened in Asia during the Asian crisis of 97/98, further, actual R&D investment in South Korea has yet to recover to its pre-1998 levels – Thailand and Malaysia were badly hit, I remember well in Kuala Lumpur the abandoned MTR system they were building – one reason I favour capital controls, which are more and more finding favour in the ASEAN group of nations, which by a strange coincidence, ain’t a supranational body like our beloved EU.

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Aug 31, 2019 12:47 PM

Robbobbobin

“What you describe, although focusing on Argentina is exactly what happened in Asia during the Asian crisis of 97/98…”

What BigB is describing, although at the moment he* seems to concentrating on the immediate more than usual, is better understood by reading on further to

The proroguing pseudo-event was yesterday’s news. Todays will be Greta in NY at the UN Climate Summit. Not many people can see that they are inextricably linked. Linked by finance and entropy.

which forms the basis of almost all of his posts and is worth rereading repeatedly until you actually understand it, not least because he* is almost the only, if not the only, poster here who even begins to move the discussion of anything discussed here beyond “yesterday’s news” into a framework in which the more relevant issues, i.e. those of today’s and tomorrow’s news, can be seriously discussed, let alone practically addressed.

* or she

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Sep 2, 2019 2:48 AM

BigB

* he: as if it mattered.

I’m not sure what motivated your intervention: but I explained above why proroguing is a pseudo-event – designed to mask the real agenda …we are not leaving the EU. For which Gwythian Prins has concrete physical evidence – the so-called ‘KitKat Tapes’. We are in fact, deepening our ties with the EU at Defence and Foreign policy level. Which is why Raab and Wallace were at their respective ministers meetings: we are not leaving the EU. Our military is being unified into the EU Defence Union: we are not leaving the EU. UK Column has all the details and timeline. We are not leaving the EU.

So proroguing is a total irrelevance to the real agenda: which I have made clear and concrete. I live in the UK: and what happens here will affect me: deal or no-deal. Which is why I feel that the non-adressing of the real issues – like depleting energy, resources, and increasing entropy and pollution – will deeply affect us all. Against the dark depleting and debt deflating global economic background: the BoBo-bot, Corbyn et al can discuss whatever they want …it is a totally imaginary irrelevance and a distraction to the slow – but exponentially speeding – inexorable slip into lights out. Then what? Absolute chaos, murder and mayhem …if we do not address these issues now.

From the research I refer to here and on the ‘Three Reads’ forum: I can even extrapolate a timescale. By mid-century we will have half as much energy throughput as we do now. Which correlates to being a lot less wealthy than we are now. Yet the Politician’s agenda is to make us believe we will have switched to clean ‘net zero’ energy sources unhindered; will be driving electric cars; jumping on hydrogen buses; flying on high-octane biofuel or solar; and the Amazon will have regenerated to full pre-exploitational levels. This is a crime against the intelligence and a total fabrication of a science-fiction dreamworld.

So we can continue to let the politicians tell their dark-imaginary tales about a world completely devoid of any reality: and set our agenda by following the talking points that they set for us. Or we can get real – fuck them off – and start dealing with the harsh realities our distracted attention on the simulation of the unreality based consensus community has left us avoiding for too long.

As Plato said: “Those who tell the stories rule society”. Their stories are demonstrable lies. If you even slightly understand the economic picture I present: alongside the depletion scenario data …you would see that their character masking fabrication of unreality is not worth discussing. How we clothe, feed, and heat or homes is an existential necessity. We have been declining towards collapse for 23 years: when do you think that will become worth addressing by the Politician and the media-cultural propaganda machine?

Long after we can effectively do anything useful about it is what I am saying. Unless we make it relevant today.

BigB,
The authors of Lobster Magazine have stated as much as you, namely, they believe it unlikely the UK will exit the EU – of course, they don’t cover ecological concerns, unless its how security services invade thought to ensure persons keep their eye on one distraction or another.

I’m firmly in your camp that the spectacle of the entire EU Referendum exercise is a ‘bait & switch’ one, entertainment for the masses as a real crisis develops, aided by the nutcases who financialise everything necessary just to exist, carbon trading being a classic example of this, together with the full privatisation of global water supplies.

So, given our knowledge, the only thing that’s to be considered is will the real crisis exhibit in one big Black Swan event, or as John Michael Greer contends, it will be a staggered, slow descent?

While much of our Ruling Elite believes it can Bug Out to New Zealand, me, I want to Bug Out back to Wales, which, given its relative small population and endemic levels of poverty, many are already prepared for hardship and given up things we take for granted today because they just can’t afford them.

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Sep 2, 2019 6:55 PM

Robbobbobin

“I’m not sure what motivated your intervention…”

Time. It seemed about time I reposted one of my occasional, random recommendations that readers here read and place more weight on your analyses of our current situation, Brexit and in general–particularly in general–than they place on the less insightful yadda yadda of the mostly sterile, parroted doomsaying posts of others “discussing” what they take to be the relevant points. Plus what I imagined to be a super compressed explanation of why I think that. If you didn’t understand it, try rereading it until you do. To check the latter point, I’ve just reread it myself. Worked for me.

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Sep 9, 2019 5:16 PM

Robbobbobin

To make it clearer in pictures, like a cartoon book, may I first blockquote your proroguing reiteration of what you seem to believe I had overlooked:

…proguing is a pseudo-event – designed to mask the real agenda …we are not leaving the EU. For which Gwythian Prins has concrete physical evidence – the so-called ‘KitKat Tapes’. We are in fact, deepening our ties with the EU at Defence and Foreign policy level. Which is why Raab and Wallace were at their respective ministers meetings: we are not leaving the EU. Our military is being unified into the EU Defence Union: we are not leaving the EU. UK Column has all the details and timeline. We are not leaving the EU.

So proroguing is a total irrelevance to the real agenda: which I have made clear and concrete. I live in the UK: and what happens here will affect me: deal or no-deal.

and then simply note the most salient detail about (not from) the caption: whereas the picture, reproduced above, occupies 18 column lines at the original indentation level, the caption following it–which may be briefly summarized by its opening sentence, “[w]hich is why I feel that the non-adressing of the real issues – like depleting energy, resources, and increasing entropy and pollution – will deeply affect us all”–goes on and on (and on and on) for (including the above summary) 62 column lines, with nary a further reference to proroguation.

Now tell me: in precisely what ways does my recommendation of your posts in general conflict with their content in general?

As an aside, I note that your man Prins seems–by his own account in his UN lecture on YouTube– not to have caught up with the (sub-)problem of oversized carbon footprints until the mid-1980s and, now that he’s finally on board with that, he is gung ho for solving it with all the means available to what you correctly describe as “the dark depleting and debt deflating global economic background”. The plus things change the plus they remain the same. The Judeo-Christian God’s ultimate Catch-22: “Sick of my fist in your face? OK, try this boot up your arse.”

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Sep 10, 2019 3:19 AM

Seamus Padraig

Is this new G9 currency idea like the old Bancor or Special Drawing Rights? If so, that’d be a total nightmare–ten times worse than having the US dollar as the world’s reserve currency! The banksters will be in seventh heaven. They’ll now be able to control virtually every currency on earth withouh eeven having to pretend to answer to anyone else. Sad …

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Aug 31, 2019 12:54 PM

BigB

No, not a Bancor. Keynes central idea was to iron out trade imbalances over the year: and put the excess to good use globally. Not Carnage. The crypto-SDR sounds more relevant …based on Facebook’s ‘Libra’. No really, he mentioned it by name. The thought of Zuckerberg controlling the ‘hegemonic’ reserve doesn’t bear thinking of. I wrote a long reply the other day – over on the ‘Discuss: Johnson prorogues…’ forum. It’s quite away down the page. So, I’ll stick it here: because I am not at all sure the BoBo-bot and Carnage are on different pages – as the ‘independent’ BoE should be. I think it is not about ‘being left behind by crpto’ as the crypto-enthusiats think. There may be an element of truth – Carnage has always been considered an crypto-dunce. I think the issue with the dollar is far more fundamental – there aren’t enough of them.

I’ve been trying to warn the ‘de-dollarisation’ believers that the successor to the dollar reserve is a death knell for humanism and socialism. And the environment. To little avail. The dollar is fucked: not because of any concern about humanism or Trump’s weaponisation of trade: but because it is a limit to world trade. Particularly derivative trade. This limitation is causing the offshore shadow banking and derivative trade to stall: threatening a global collapse of many times the magnitude of the GFC.

Carnage is full of shit: but you know that. The global “savings glut” was Bernanke’s best shot at explaning the GFC. It’s bullshit. The BIS deconstructed it in Working Paper 291. The real reason for the GFC was a dollar shortage: a liquidity imbalance of $2-$6.5 tn. In other words: they don’t know exactly. Because the money was not in the US or in the national accounts of the emerging markets (the ‘savings glut’): it was offshore.

If you know about the offshore Eurobond markets: a dollar comes in and gets lent on again – virtually, with no collateral or reserve ratio limitation – doubling the amount of dollars in circulation. Or trebling (if it is lent on again). No one knows. It is completely unregulated and opaque. Until there is a massive shortfall, slowdown, or crisis. Then there are not enough physical dollars to settle accounts. Hence the GFC (nothing to do with mortgages or savings).

The GFC was bad. The next one will be multiple times worse. What multiple no one knows. But all the QE stimulation gave rise to a shadow bank and derivative bubble north of $350 – underpinned by LIBOR. If the bubble bursts (and it will): there aren’t enough dollars – and the Fed just can’t be the lender of last resort. Not again. And they cannot ease by lowering rates.

There is another dynamic at play: the Triffin Paradox. When the dollar is weak: there are plenty in circulation through the Eurobond markets to stimulate world trade. Which equates to global expansion. At the first sight of slowdown: investors seek a safe haven. Dollars flee into Treasury Bonds and the Euromarkets stall. As they did in 2007. And 2000. And 1997. And 1987. Which equals crisis. An offshore dollar liquidity crisis.

A Synthetic Hegemonic Currency is not subject to these vagaries. It is infinitely expandable (if you ignore biophysics and entropy). It is the central bankers wet dream of a centralised cryptocurrency with no reserve limitations. By ignoring everything material – they think it will stimulate global trade. It will not. It will destroy everything. I’ve long suspected they will restimulate the coming GFC 2.0 with the dollar and the SDR. Perhaps it will be the SHC?

[I know it is incredibly vain to blockquote one’s own research: I apologise …but I couldn’t be bothered to type it again.]

Chris, thanks for that link to EcoSophia (Greek: Household Wisdom). A clip:

“The global economy these days is dominated by a vast superstructure of what might best be called _Hallucinatory Finance_ in which investment vehicles that have no noticeable connection to actual goods or services are assigned arbitrary values and traded feverishly in worldwide markets. It so happens that in order to keep that superstructure propped up, a steady flow of actual wealth—modest in terms of the gargantuan notional values of the superstructure, but much less so in human terms—has to be added to the mix. … with results you can see quite readily if you walk down Main Street in any American city or town outside a few wealthy coastal enclaves.

Successful as it was, that strategy has had serious downsides, among them the rise of populist movements—think Trump and Brexit—aimed at shutting down the extraction of money from Main Street for the benefit of Godzillionaires and their hangers-on. (A recent video by economist Mohammed El-Erian let that particular cat out of the bag in a big way, noting that Trump administration policies have sharply decreased the “exfiltration” of wealth from the productive economy in the US and thus thrown the entire mechanism of globalization into reverse. Does this help explain the constant demonization of Trump by the corporate media? You tell me.)”

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Sep 1, 2019 8:02 AM

BigB

As estimated by Dr Jack Rasmus: the value of Trump’s tax cuts going to the ‘Godzillionaire’s’ via Wall St – $10tn. Loss to Main St over the decade – $10tn. It is a massive re-distribution scam to buy loyalty.

The whole Trump ‘neo-nationalism’ and ‘deglobalisation’ or ‘reverse globalisation’ is an unintended consequence. The ‘mechanism of globalisation’ is the Eurobond market – centred in London. Bonds that are merely denominated in dollars. They are not actual dollars – which seems to confuse everyone.

The dollar is the investors hedge. A ‘strong dollar’ draws investors ‘onshore’ and in to dollar denominated assets – like Treasury Bonds. This weakens the ‘offshore’ eurodollar markets – weakening global trade (so called ‘deglobalisation’). This is the famous Triffin Paradox. A ‘weak dollar’ suits globalisation: a ‘strong dollar’ stalls globalised economic trade. Which is exactly what Mark Carnage was addressing with his ‘Synthetic Hegemonic Currency’ (SHC) proposal. A national currency cannot be the global reserve and a national currency. There are two competing dynamics that cancel each other out and cause cycles of expansion, contraction and crisis. Exacerbated by investors rushing for the global exits and into dollar denominated assets that causes emerging market economies to become submerging market economies.

If anyone thinks my comments are obtuse: try reading Carnage’s speech at Jackson Hole! But he does at least explain these dynamics: even if it is in central banker neo-classical economic-speek. There is no ‘savings glut’. The missing money is not in the EMEs current accounts. It is ‘offshore’ in the Eurobond market. As he well knows. Though he would never say it in plain English.

BigB: “The real issues concern every citizen focusing on what is real for them. Family, friends future, music, art, dogs …none of it is safe under these …”

I keep thinking of Great Britain under Attlee: both the Attlee Labour government and the previous Attlee-Churchill coalition government. With Churchill or Bevan to make the big speeches and modest little Attlee to see the children fed, Britain fought a major war yet the health of its people increased as never before. One of the delights of being in London in the late50s-early60s was the health of the young Cockneys. Before Attlee, the East End of London was world famous for undernourishment and disease.

I know nothing of finance but I have a vague impression that under Attlee income tax on the rich increased progressively from 50% to 99%.
Rather like modern Israel in its early days under its early communist days, when the only way to make a small fortune was to bring in a big one; that was when most of Israel’s present social security system was set up.

Prior to the onset of the Thatcher/Reagan era, taxable income rates both sides of the Atlantic were as high as 90% – if you are aware of the Powell Memorandum of 1971, a neoliberal call to arms, this is when the Elite began its fightback against the New Deal, obviously it coincided with the 1973 Oil Shock and the rest is history: https://studenthandouts.com/texts/historical-documents/powell-memorandum.html

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Sep 1, 2019 10:31 AM

BigB

I know you are an expat now. The modern ”cockney child” – living in the literal shadow of Canary Wharf; locating nearly all of the world’s financial institutions – is suffering from TB and other Victorian diseases of malnutrition and poverty. All that excessive money (world ForEx trade $5tn – a day! – much of it over the counter in the City) is a crime against humanity. One days trade ends world poverty forever (as estimated in 2018 this would cost a mere $175bn a year – that’s a lot of years squandered every day – for the children who live in Victorian Britain cheek-by-jowl with such fantastical amounts capital. Imagine if just a minutes trade was directed their way?)

I’m not uncouth enough to use the term ‘Expat’, both me and my wife are immigrants, economic ones at that – however, if the choice is being poor where i currently reside, or being poor in Wales, I elect Wales all the time, and for obvious reasons, Hong Kong is far too over crowded and public order will be hard to maintain come any real ecological crisis.

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Sep 2, 2019 7:00 PM

pablomillerunit

Vexarb, I read somewhere that when the conscripts arrived at the boot camps, after being called up, at the start of the Second World War – their basic health was found to be in considerably worse than the same moment in 1914. The interwar years – the general strike, the great depression etc, impacted health outcomes for the working classes far more than is reported. Beveridge used it as part of his foundational report on the welfare state. Cheers!

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Sep 1, 2019 11:19 AM

pablomillerunit

Thanks BigB for your message, you have educated me about something I have never grasped. Being thick and stubborn I don’t often get to experience educative uplift. Cheers

Thanks,vexarb! I followed the link you provided,and *viciously* skipped along in it. I found Hellevig’s descriptions of “neoliberalism” vis-a-vis “liberalism”,unsalutary; and, his term: “neo-Bolshevik”incomprehensible.Baffling!

Try Professor David Harvey’s book on neoliberalism, its probably the most accessible account available, Prof. David Graeber’s History of Debt is also worth a gander – both books compliment more ecological studies.

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Aug 31, 2019 5:44 PM

vexarb

Ben, I never argue over definitions, I think the value of that article lies in its wealth of data favourable to Putin’s Russia. Especially the growth of Russia’s real PP income (3rd place after U$A and Germany) — and achieved with miniscule debt compared to everyone else’s “Debtburger”. Hope this clip is printable; if not, just skip thru the article but ponder the graphs. Russia is actually benefiting from its difficulty in obtaining loans from the usual suspects — why, how, who, what is responsible for that extraordinary phenomenon?

“The debt game has been miserable all over the West, perhaps with the only exception of Germany, who has wisely refrained from participating, even when egged on by liberal economists calling Germany’s more prudent policy unfair to the gambling nations. Below chart shows how much more the Western governments have borrowed than produced economic growth. The chart covers years 2004 to 2013, but the trend has been the same ever since. GDP growth has been vastly less than the growth of the colossal Debtberg.

Note Russia there as the shining exception.
Below chart ranks countries according to their debt burden relative to GDP. And again you see how debtless Russia is compared with the squandering nations”.

[A tsunami of capital sloshes around the globe finding no productive investment. “The years which the Locust hath eaten”]

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Sep 1, 2019 1:20 PM

crank

Britain best be “rid of him and his loathsome gang as soon and as finally as possible.” [quoting Pulman]

This had a certain whiff of a coup of its own, the sort of thing that Westminster systems have been vulnerable to in history. (Australia offers an apt, if undistinguished example of the overthrow of Prime Minister Gough Whitlam in 1975, ably assisted by opposition leader Malcolm Fraser and then governor general John Kerr.)

That is a stretched comaprison isn’t it? Pulman is no Machiavellian political operative. Whitlam was brought down with the crucial help of the US intelligence agencies, not a fantasy novelist.
Pulman’s tweet smelled to me of calls for revolt against a disgustingly strident Establishment.

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Aug 30, 2019 5:30 PM

Editor

The establishment is at least as much behind the hysterical storm about a supposed ‘coup’ as it is BoJo’s actions. How do you imagine these panics get started? Surely not so naive as to think them spontaneous?

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Aug 30, 2019 6:16 PM

crank

What is ‘the Establishment’ ?
Philip Pulman ?
(That was the example in the article which I criticised).

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Aug 30, 2019 6:31 PM

Roland Spansky

You mentioned the establishment first so I guess you have to know what you meant by it:

Pulman’s tweet smelled to me of calls for revolt against a disgustingly strident Establishment.

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Aug 30, 2019 10:11 PM

crank

Whatever I think it is, I don’t think Philip Pulman would feature much in a defintition.
That was the point I was trying to make.
I don’t share Pulman’s politics.
But I stand by the criticism that it was a poor comparison to make in the article.
I think it is possible to be critical of Johnson’s moves to bypass parliamentary involvement and still be sympathetic to the principle that the ref result should be honoured for the sake of democratic principle.
Back in 2016, there was a lot more talk of the ‘Establishment being split on the issue’. That seems to have faded into Leavers categorically insisting that the handling of Brexit has been an ‘Establishment stitch up’, and Remoaners categorically insisting that ‘the Establishment are mounting a coup through Brexit’.
Can they both be right ?

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Aug 31, 2019 12:16 PM

crank

BTW
Pulman has deleted the tweet.

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Aug 31, 2019 12:16 PM

Ruth

crank, I’d be very interested in how you or any other readers describe the Establishment

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Aug 30, 2019 10:41 PM

crank

I guess the anodyne definition would be those at the top of the power pyramid.
It seems from the ‘outside’ that there is a secretive substructure through which the interests of the Establishment elite work out their differences, maintain discipline and formulate strategy for furthering their common interests.
It also seems that anyone who really explores this aspect encounters a set of ideas that go way beyond the pursuit of wealth and political power. There are ancient stories that many of those at the top subscribe to, and in which they seem to view themselves as key participants.
I won’t write more (because I have previously been rebuked for sharing my views on OffG), other than I think Whitney Webb is on the right track – I think she is exposing the ‘Establishment’ as it should be understood.

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Aug 31, 2019 12:38 PM

pablomillerunit

Well crank, if I was pushed I would say, the establishment is the empire that never dies. Philip K. Dick discusses this in “The Man in the High castle”. It is my favorite of all of the books that he wrote that I have read. These days, people call it “the deep state”. Unless Pullman has intelligence connections, any role he plays in establishment is, IMO insignificant.